"The potential is there for an incident exactly the same as the one that happened up north last year," Matakanui farmer Andrew Paterson said yesterday, referring to the death of Wellington teacher Rosemary Ives.
Miss Ives was killed in October when a group of hunters illegally spotlighting in the Kaimanawa Forest Park thought she was a deer. Four people faced charges in connection with the incident. One was sentenced to jail for manslaughter, while three others admitted breaching their hunting permits.
Central Otago farmers joined forces with police at the end of last year to set up an anti-poaching initiative, which has now spread throughout Otago and into South Canterbury.
Under the scheme, property owners grant police authority to issue trespass notices to people found on their land without permission.
The notice applies to all properties in the initiative and more than 30 farmers have joined the scheme so far.
Two Central Otago men were prosecuted earlier this year for hunting on a property without the permission of the landowner and five young men will appear in the Alexandra District Court later this month to face charges under the Arms Act and Wild Animal Control Act. The group was allegedly drinking and hunting illegally on an Omakau property at Queens Birthday weekend.
Central Otago sub-area police supervisor Senior Sergeant Ian Kerrisk said the anti-poaching initiative was working well.
"Support for the initiative is growing as more and more people contact us venting their frustration with this problem," he said.
"The more people involved with the scheme, the better it works."
There was no "soft option" or warnings for people who were hunting illegally on a property, Snr Sgt Kerrisk said.
"We're talking about people spotlighting, using powerful firearms, often in isolated locations, and they have no idea what is outside the light of their spotlight. There is certainly the potential for an incident like the one that took the life of the Wellington woman [Rosemary Ives] and nobody wants that tragedy to be repeated."
Mr Paterson, who was one of the first to sign up to the scheme, said farmers had "had enough" of people hunting without permission on their properties.
"Generally farmers will give permission, if they're asked, and it's not at lambing time, for example. Often I'll have hunters on my land, or walking groups going through, that I've said can be there, and those people are at risk from people hunting illegally."
Peter Hore, of Dansey Pass, said he made sure people using his property with his permission - trampers, horse-riders and hunters -were in separate blocks.
"We try to accommodate people but we must also have control of our own business, our own land. It's not particularly nice looking out your window at night and seeing lights and hearing gunshots nearby, when you haven't given permission for anyone to be on your property."
He believed the scheme was a positive move and it was reducing the amount of illegal hunting.
